What’s happening?

In what’s sure to be a true test of my writing ability, I’m about to pen an article about, well, not much really. There’s not a great deal going on at the moment. Not in the world of mobile phones, anyway.

I predict I’ll get to around 100 words before I have to bail. Or maybe I’ll cheat a little and churn out a couple of sentences speculating about how many words I might be able to write in total. Nah, that’d be fairly awful.

Now where was I? Ah yes, not much is happening. Or perhaps it’s fairer to say that too much has happened in the past few months and now we’re in a relative lull.

At the end of 2010, smartphones went all dual-core on us, thanks to the LG Optimus 2X. Samsung, Motorola, HTC et al have followed suit, and the likes of the Galaxy S II, Atrix and Sensation are all out or coming soon. Now the mention of dual-core isn’t quite enough to do it for us. We want quad-core. Not that we need it or anything; just because we’re greedy.

In January 2011, the CES in Vegas played host to around 100 new tablets, and now we’re sick of the bloody things. It would be nice to see someone give the iPad a good run for its money, but that doesn’t look likely with the current crop of contenders. Word on the street is: Amazon is planning a potential iPad-puncher, though we’ve yet to hear anything official.

Speaking of the iPad, the run up to the iPad 2’s launch gave us plenty to write about in January and February. Since then, things have been fairly dire, save for those relentless rumours about the white iPhone 4, and of course iPhone 5-related chatter.

I kinda blame Apple. With most of the other manufacturers, we get specs leaked by “trustworthy anonymous sources”, and blurry shots of handsets to tease our taste buds. But that’s not the case with the Californians. We won't really know the dealio with the iPhone 5 until Apple is good and ready to share. And in the absence of anything exciting coming from the other manufacturers at present, that’s a bit pants really.

What else happened at the beginning of the year? Ah, yes. Nokia finally came over all decisive and pitched its tent in Microsoft’s camp, after months of speculation and tales of financial woe for the Finns. Them were the days. It’ll probably be the end of the year – if not 2012 – before we see the first Windows Phone 7 handset from Nokia.

So is anything else going down in the meantime?

Well, other than the aforementioned iPhone 5, there’s a bunch of 3D stuff, including the LG Optimus 3D and HTC Evo 3D. I’m really not convinced that smartphones need 3D, so I’m not going to say anything. Other than to reiterate the fact that it’s expensive, gimmicky, battery-draining nonsense, in a world where things are already expensive and smartphone batteries last about 12 hours if you’re lucky.

And that’s pretty much it. The iPhone 5 in Septemberish, some 3D stuff, a WP7 handset from Nokia at some point, and possibly a tablet from Amazon. Oh, and NFC is set to take off this year, meaning you can lazily pay for junk using your mobile phone without having to get your wallet out. The end.

You're right.
I blame the phoney Android-iOS war and the hype of...well...pretty much everything. It dulls the senses.
Firmware updates, pre-iPhone, were a geek thing, now they are frontpage news months before they happen.
Apps that do things smartphones could do 5 years ago are talked UP because, well, by 2006's standards iOS is not all that 'smart', just slick and clever.
The Nokia-Symbian-Microsoft saga was draining - the Campbell government under Blair provided less spin, and olympic gymnasts couldn't posssibly distort that much.
Android now pushes NFC and 3D before a decent email client...
And apps apps apps apps...
The only thing of interest currently has been missed by many: the US Army adopted Android - why is that interesting? They will find a way to up battery life. If they can't get an Android phone to run for more than 12 hrs, well, then noone can.
But, yeah...when too much news becomes no news, eh?!